TV News: "Lost" and "Scrubs" Casting News, Locklear Returns to "Melrose Place?"

- Well that didn't take long! Hot on the heels of the leak of a character description for a new Lost character, it was announced today that actor John Hawkes will be joining the show as the recurring character Lennon. The casting side described the character as "the spokesman/translator for the president of a foreign corporation" who's "far more powerful than his lowly position would seem to indicate." Hawkes is a veteran of shows including Deadwood and Eastbound & Down. [TV Guide]

- The three new regulars who will play the next generation of Scrubs doctors have been cast.  Dave Franco (yes, he's James Franco's younger brother and has also starred in Greek and Privileged), Michael Mosley (The Proposal) and Kerry Bishé (Virtuality) will be the new med students under the tutelage of series veterans Donald Faison and John C. McGinley. [Hollywood Reporter]

- Speaking of Scrubs, congrats to actress Sarah Chalke and her fiancé, who recently announced that they are expecting their first child! [People]

- Heather Locklear may return to Melrose Place. The erstwhile Amanda Woodward is now in talks to reprise her role on the rebooted series, which now stars Ashlee Simpson-Wentz. Several of Locklear's fellow cast members from the original series have also signed on, including Laura Leighton, Thomas Calabro, Josie Bissett and Daphne Zuniga. [TV Guide]

- Syfy has reupped their new original series Warehouse 13, ordering a 13-episode second season of of the show. Evidently Warehouse 13 is the most-watched show in the channel's history.  [Variety]

- In some groan-worthy tv news, ABC is looking to turn both the '80s "Brat Pack" movie St. Elmo's Fire and the novel The Time Traveler's Wife into television series. A feature film version of The Time Traveler's Wife was, of course, was released into theaters last weekend.  Click here to read Pop Wench Radhika's review of the movie. [TV Guide and MTV.com]

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TV News: FBI Agent Added to Fringe, Fuller Leaves Heroes Again

- Former Deal or No Deal model Meghan Markle has joined the cast of Fringe as "an attractive, brash and quick-witted junior FBI agent." Hmmm . . . possible love interest/eye candy for Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) during the show's second season? [Hollywood Reporter]

- Bryan Fuller has left Heroes again, citing time constraints since NBC has tapped him to write multiple pilots. Fuller was originally co-executive producer for the comic book action show, but left to work on Pushing Daisies. Fuller had returned to Heroes in 2008 as a consulting producer. He emphasizes that his departure is not due to creative differences with show creator Tim Kring. "We crated some really great arcs for the season that I'm excited to see come to fruition. I love that cast dearly and am sad to go, but the plate -- she was over-flowing," Fuller said. [TV Guide]

- Callum Blue (Secret Diary of a Call Girl) has been added to the cast of Smallville as a regular. Blue will be playing Phantom Zone villian Zod as the CW show enters its ninth season. [E! Online]

- Comedian Martin Lawrence's production company is developing several new series, including an animated comedy for Fox based on Lawrence's experiences growing up in the Washington, DC area. Lawrence is also working on a single-camera interracial family show for Starz and a multicamera family comedy that will probably be shopped to the networks. [Variety]

- Judy Reyes of Scrubs fame is pregnant with her first child and is due in November. Congratulations to her and boyfriend George Valencia! [TV Guide]

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Scrubs 2.0 Changes Unveiled

Warning: this post contains spoilers for the next season of Scrubs

Details about the ninth, Zach Braff-less season of Scrubs have been revealed to EW's Ausiello Files by showrunner Bill Lawrence, and big changes are in store for the veteran comedy.

Sacred Heart will no longer be the show's main setting since Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) and Turk (Donald Faison) will become med school professors. At least half the cast will be made up of freshmen med school students, and the college classroom will be the main location.  According to Lawrence, at least one of the freshmen will be an actor or actress with name recognition, per ABC's request.

"It's going to be a different show," said Lawrence. "It'll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person's voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad."

Since med students do spend time onsite in hospitals while they are in school, the students, Cox and Turk will be visiting Sacred Heart and running into old friends. Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and Ken Jenkins have signed on to make guest appearances during the coming season. [Entertainment Weekly]

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TV Renewal News: Dollhouse and Scrubs are coming back

- First things first. It may seem like the miracle of the year, especially considering the fact that its finale reportedly had the lowest rating of all its episodes — Dollhouse is coming back. We won't get an official announcement until Monday, but FOX executives have decided to bring it back for a 13-episode order so far. Now apparently, they do want to continue airing it on Friday nights... but I think it would be interesting if they put it on back to back with a show like Fringe on another night. (That's assuming Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles doesn't come back, and sadly it seems like it won't). [THR.com]

- And now it looks like Scrubs is coming back too for a ninth season, and Zach Braff will be coming back as well (for six episodes). Sarah Chalke is also slated to return for six episodes. Hm. I hate saying it, but it does feel like the Season 8 finale has been cheapened in a way. Can the show still go out on top in the future? [THR.com]

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Scrubs: JD's Finale

Warning: This post will contain some spoilers for last night's Scrubs season finale, "My Finale."

So as previously mentioned, last night was the season (possibly series) finale of Scrubs. (I love how most people — myself included — are assuming it's the end of the show when we really haven't been given any concrete idea of its future).

The episode continued with the plotline introduced in Tuesday night's episode: JD would be leaving Sacred Heart to go work at a hospital closer to his son. So as expected, the episode largely focused on JD's desire to say goodbye to the people he worked with (and finally get some recognition/affection from Dr. Cox).

I'll be honest — while there were a couple of minor flaws here and there, I teared up.[bxA]

Scrubs has had its ups and downs over the past couple of years. There were times when plotlines got even zanier to the point of being unfunny, and this might have been the result of creator Bill Lawrence's frustrations over how the show was treated during its seven years on NBC. (Still not much of an excuse). But the show did return to form (for the most part) this season, and we got to see the very human sides of its characters once again.

And I think that's why I found myself tearing up during the episode, even though a part of me felt it could have been a little shorter, or could have focused on other characters if it was going to be that long. The characters on Scrubs have always been a little hilarious and over-the-top, but they're also characters I feel I've gotten to know really well over the last eight years. The audience has seen these people start out as fresh-faced interns in a hospital, who eventually move on to take on major leadership roles. We've also seen them start relationships, get married, have children — and while Scrubs is basically a comedy, we've seen them tackle tougher issues like the deaths of family members and patients, and their worries for their children. Cliched as it sounds, every time I watched an episode of Scrubs, I felt as though I was catching up with some old friends.

So I enjoyed last night's finale for the sense of closure I received. Whether or not the show does return in some form (under the same title, or as a spin-off series featuring the new interns), it was our last chance to say goodbye to JD — a character I loved during the early years and was glad to love again this season. His narration and ridiculous fantasies were the heart of the show, and a huge reason why I got hooked on it to begin with. And it was nice to see JD get his closure too from people like Dr. Cox (even if he was "tricked" into admitting how much he liked JD) and the Janitor (Glenn Matthews? Or Tommy?)

I do wish other characters had more screentime. We never saw Doug — who I feel only had one or two episodes worth of screentime this season — and Carla wasn't in the episode as much as I would have liked. But I do admit that her scene with JD was one of the best, subtle emotional moments on the show. When JD asked her why she never gave him a hard time when he started out, her simple response of "You were Bambi — someone had to teach you how to walk" got me to shed my first tear. It also reminded me how special the relationship between JD and Carla has always been even without Turk in the picture.

Purposely sentimental as it was, I also admit I really liked the moment when JD walked through the halls of Sacred Heart one last time and saw the faces of all the people he had encountered over the years. We got to see people like Laverne again, and we even got to see characters like the elderly patient from "My Old Lady" asking him if he "ever went on that picnic." It was a fantastic way to give a shoutout to the sitcom's past episodes without turning it into a schmaltzy clip show.

All in all, it was a good way to bring the Scrubs saga to an end. Spin-offs are fine and well (though I doubt I'd watch them), but I do hope they're done airing Scrubs after this. The show did return to form this season, but there's no need to drag it out either. Bill Lawrence did recently blog about how last night's finale was a series finale no matter what, even if the show does "go on," and while I'm down with his sentiments, I think we had a good eight years. That being said, I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

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Celebrating Scrubs' heterosexual lifemates

ABC will be airing Scrubs two nights in a row this week — one episode tonight, and one tomorrow. Tomorrow night's episode is supposed to be an hour-long finale, and it's very likely the series finale, though no one really seems to be acknowledging it. (Some outlets are referring to it as the series finale though).

Either way, it's going to be an end of an era. Zach Braff, who plays the show's protagonist JD, will be leaving after this season. So even if we do get an intern-filled ninth season (which I'd rather not see, to be honest with you), we won't have anymore of JD's ridiculous daydreams or silly narrations.

So this post is going to feature some video clips of my favorite Turk/JD moments. The friendship between the two characters is one of the funniest and best ones I've ever seen on TV. While their obsession with each other can be a little borderline ridiculous, it's refreshing to see two best friends who've known each other for so long act the way they do — because that is what friendships often turn into when you've known each other for a long period of time.

The first clip here served as one of the first moments establishing the "intensity" of Turk and JD's relationship.


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These next two clips establish their dorkiness, and tendency to dance like idiots (well to be fair, JD dances like the idiot. But Turk is pretty awesome, and I've often said I could watch an entire half-hour episode that focuses on Turk's dancing).





This clip answers the following: What's better? Turk asking JD to be his best man? Or JD finding two decoder rings in a box of cereal so the two of them (grown men, mind you) can have some childlike fun?



And here's one of their ridiculous running jokes: Multi-Ethnic Siamese Doctor. We definitely saw this little gag appear more than once on the show.



And last, but not least, one of the most memorable moments between the two characters: their song "Guy Love" from the show's musical episode. A perfect, hilarious description of the love between two guys — and why I'll miss seeing them together on TV:

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